Seems my exuberance over the death of UKIP really wasn't premature. They're so economically as well as morally and politically bankrupt that they've failed to stand candidates in about half the constituencies this General Election.

Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

Being upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

Not to me it hasn't. I've just searched for the term UKIP posted by Loki and apart from a post he analysed the polls in (no judgement) his prior post from a few months ago was where he was calling me premature for pronouncing the death of UKIP.

Originally Posted by Loki

Hilarious for Rand to claim the UK is going in a globalist direction as each week brings forth a new anti-immigration policy/proposal. And UKIP has clearly disappeared from the scene. That's why it's polling at 12%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinio..._election#2017

Something tells me UKIP is not going to get anywhere close to 12% in four weeks time.

Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

Being upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

They have taken a huge beating, no denying that (it is disingenuous to talk about their number of seats, their influence was always as a spoiler). We'll see what happens when May has to make sovereignty and immigration-related concessions as part of an EU deal.

The importance of how many seats they're standing in is not how many seats they'll win (none no matter what), it is that they are so weak as an institution now they lack the resources both human and financial to even put in paper candidates.

It costs £500 per seat deposit to stand in a seat, that money is refunded if you score at least 5% which any major party is expected to do. The Lib Dems famously in 2015 lost their deposits in a majority of seats costing them £170k. The Green Party lost £221k but that was to be expected for them. UKIP now are so unpopular they'd lose more deposits now than the Lib Dems did last time and they're so bankrupt that they can't afford to do so. Hence they're not even putting paper candidates in like the Greens do.

They're not even spoilers anymore.

They're not spoiling they've passed on! This party is no more! They have ceased to be! They've expired and gone to meet their maker! They're stiff! Bereft of life, they rest in peace! If you hadn't nailed them to the ballot they'd be pushing up the daisies! Their psephological processes are now 'istory! They're off the twig! They've kicked the bucket, they've shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARTY!!

Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

Being upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

UKIP doesn't usually put up enough MPs contest every seat. 2015, when they were only a handful short, was unusual for them. 377 is a new low, though. At least if you don't count them back in the 90s when they were just getting started. About 100 down on what they usually manage to field.

So, yeah, it's not unusual for a political party to go through rough patches like this, though whether they can actually recover or reinvent themselves with their raison-d'etre (it is funny to use french words when talking about UKIP) taken away remains to be seen. As I said, we'll see what happens with Brexit before we can determine their final fate.

We should die for the things we believe in, but live our lives in the dark self-deceiving.
In the snow, all the world that we knew is ice and so we are cold, dead and gone.
Shine a light till the dark sky is burning, wolves are howling and fortune is turning.
But our hearts and the words that we say are ice, and so we are cold, dead and gone.

UKIP only became a 'major party' after 2012/3 according to Ofcom and before 2013 it was lumped in with "Others" in the opinion poll results. That you don't just have to look back to elections early in the century but back to the 90s (when it was playing second fiddle to James Goldsmith's Referendum Party) to see so few candidates just shows my point, UKIP is fast becoming an "Others" party once more. Yes it is possible that they will recover but it will be from ashes like a phoenix if they do.

This is by far the worst performance candidate-wise that UKIP has put in this century.
2001: 428
2005: 496
2010: 558
2015: 624
2017: 377

1997 UKIP was still nascent but the Referendum Party put up 547. In 1992 neither party existed so this is the lowest since records began for Referendum/UKIP.

Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

Being upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

We should die for the things we believe in, but live our lives in the dark self-deceiving.
In the snow, all the world that we knew is ice and so we are cold, dead and gone.
Shine a light till the dark sky is burning, wolves are howling and fortune is turning.
But our hearts and the words that we say are ice, and so we are cold, dead and gone.

It's actually the original French billion, which is bi-million, which is a million to the power of 2. We adopted the word, and then they changed it, presumably as revenge for Crecy and Agincourt, and then the treasonous Americans adopted the new French usage and spread it all over the world. And now we have to use it.

I guess that's about their obsession with nekkid pictures. Freedom of speech doesn't cover what they named 'the naughty parts'. So of course they want an internet that keeps a close eye on who's watching those.

Greece shows us that there is a kind of politician worse than the ones that break their election promises; the ones that keep their election promises.

We should die for the things we believe in, but live our lives in the dark self-deceiving.
In the snow, all the world that we knew is ice and so we are cold, dead and gone.
Shine a light till the dark sky is burning, wolves are howling and fortune is turning.
But our hearts and the words that we say are ice, and so we are cold, dead and gone.

Remember Rand arguing that the reason for Brexit was for the Tories to liberalize the economy? Can't wait for the new changed goalpost that allows Rand to explain away this policy (which is worse than Trump's skilled immigration proposals).

Still the alternative is Jeremy Corbyn so what can we do. Not voting Conservative because they're flawed in this election is like not voting for Hillary Clinton because she was flawed last November. Yes there's two sides but one is batshit crazy and the other is just bad.

Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

Being upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.

You made your bed, now lie in it. You didn't want Cameron, you got May. You don't get to whine about that and tell us what a good boy you really are. You voted for Brexit and thus you own all of the consequences.

In particular, a major part of the Brexit campaign was hating on foreigners and preventing immigrants from coming into the country. You don't get to protest about that, you voted for it.

When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

I liked Cameron, I voted for Cameron three times (leadership election, two general elections). I also liked most of Cameron's cabinet including Leave leaders Michael Gove (sacked by May when she took over) and Boris Johnson, as well as Remain Chancellor George Osborne (also sacked by May when she took over).

However Cameron was a lame duck. He had already announced his intention to retire before the next General Election. Changing your vote on a constitutional matter the consequences of which will change this nation's trajectory forever based on whether you like or dislike a soon to be retired transient head of government is just plain moronic.

Besides this shows why it was more important to vote for Brexit not less. Brexit wasn't about "hating on foreigners and preventing immigrants from coming into the country", it was about taking "control". If we don't like the way the government is acting then Steely and I and anyone else can vote accordingly. Inside the EU if we didn't like the way the Commission was acting we had no control and our elections changed nothing consequential about the EU.

Steely and I, and all other Brits, now face a very stark choice at the next election like the American's faced last time: like Hillary vote for May's Tories, unpleasant but competent. Or like Trump we have Corbyn's Labour, absolutely insane. Or like Stein/Johnson we can abdicate all responsibility because "they're both bad" and go for a meaningless third party and pass on the decision making to everyone else because its clearly safe to virtue signal like this because the insane choice won't win surely (!)

Not the ideal set of choices but we have a choice at least and next time the choice may be different.

Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

Being upset is understandable, but be upset at yourself for poor planning, not at the world by acting like a spoiled bitch during an interview.